“Now you’re going to brace your body against the wall and slide straight down holding the rope.”

Zander took a deep breath and tried not to think about plunging into a dark abyss.

“Just let your feet glide against the rock until they meet the ground,” Ace said. “I’m right here.”

I’m right here.

Zander nodded resolutely and took the plunge. Cool air enveloped him as he lowered himself downward, the light swallowed suddenly by blackness. As his feet crested the step and found nothing but smooth rock, he braced his body against the wall and slid, his stomach seemingly falling slower than the rest of his body as he descended into utter darkness.

Before he knew it, the rush of air and uncertainty was replaced by two distinct feelings. First, solid ground beneath his feet. Second, Ace’s strong hands braced on either side of his waist to steady him. Zander let out a breath as one hand moved to the small of his back, the other to his bicep.

“You okay?” she asked softly.

Zander didn’t dare breathe too deeply, not knowing if he was truly on the ground or balanced precariously on another ledge.

“I’m okay.”

The hand on his shoulder trailed down his arm and captured his hand, pulling gently.

“You can turn around,” she said. “It’s safe.”

He turned slowly, hyper aware of every place on his body that brushed against hers as he did. She stayed still as he turned, her body almost flush against his as he faced her, making him think they must be in a very tight space. He could feel her breath on his face, could smell her hair, but he couldn’t see a thing. They stood there silently for a moment, and the entire world became the smell of her, the sound of her, the feeling of her hand still clutched in his.

“Follow me. Okay?” she finally said.

“Yes,” Zander said. Always. Anywhere. Yes.

She squeezed his hand quickly and turned, pulling him behind her.

“Duck your head,” she said after a few steps.

He did. They continued walking slowly through what felt like a tunnel, the ground sloping slightly downhill. After a few minutes the sounds around them transformed, and Zander knew they’d emerged into an open area.

“Hold on,” Ace said, letting go of his hand. He could hear her detach the lantern from her hip. A moment later he heard the sound of flint against steel. The spark of a flame briefly illuminated Ace’s face, and the lantern was lit.

Zander blinked as the room around them was thrown into sudden relief by the lantern light. They stood in a small cavern, its roof dotted with brilliant formations that reminded him of giant icicles. A few feet away from where they stood, a brilliant green pool stretched the length of the cave. He and Ace stood on a small shore. Behind him was the low tunnel they’d walked through, the space beyond it shrouded in darkness.

Ace took a few steps and sat on the ground, positioning the lantern nearby on a flat surface. She leaned comfortably against the rock wall, as if she’d done it a thousand times, and patted the ground beside her.

Zander lowered himself next to her and looked around the room. Its edges were still dark, too far away for the lantern light to touch them, but the flame reflected brilliantly off the water. It was quiet, a stillness hanging in the cool air. Compared to the jungle outside, with its brilliant sun and chirping birds, it felt like another world entirely.

“How did you find this place?” Zander asked.

“I fell in here by accident when I was a little girl,” Ace said, her voice quiet so as not to drown out the whispers of the water. “My parents and I docked here fairly regularly, and I grew accustomed to playing in the jungle when they were doing something especially boring. One day I jumped off a large rock, and when I landed, the earth crumbled beneath me, and I fell straight down.

“I thought I was dead for sure, but once I realized I wasn’t so far down, I took a few deep breaths and waited for my eyes to adjust. Eventually, I found my way into this, and I laid down and listened to the stillness.”

Ace was silent then, as if she was listening to that same stillness now.

“It was so strange,” she said eventually. “The sound of it. So unlike the constant movement of the ocean, yet somehow the same. Like beneath all that movement—the violence of the waves, the wind whipping against your ears—there was a small, quiet voice inside the water. But I never heard it until then.”

Zander closed his eyes, listening for the voice, wanting to hear what she heard. But all he could hear was the steady drip, drip, drip of the water as it echoed off the cave walls. Then Ace’s fingers brushed against his cheek, and every one of his senses narrowed to a single point.

When he opened his eyes, Ace was looking at him with an expression he’d never seen before. Soft. Hungry. Her hand dropped from his face only to land near his shoulder moments later, her fingers gently tracing the outline of his collar bone.

“There’s something that’s been bothering me since I met you on that beach, Zander,” she said softly.

Zander’s heart sped up at the breathy way she said his name.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“That day, lying next to you in the dirt, I felt… something. It was like that soft, still voice in the water. But it came from right here.”

Then she took his hand, and she placed it over her heart.

“Ace.”

Her name tore itself from his mouth, as if it were his very soul and not his lungs that formed the word. He lifted his other hand to gently cup her cheek.

Ace leaned into his touch, her hands reaching up to grip the front of his shirt. Her breath came in shallow bursts as she spoke. “And it’s been bothering me,” she said, “that we haven’t had a goddamn moment of privacy since then.”

Suddenly, she was in his arms, her mouth on his, his arms around her. He held her against him like she was the only thing rooting him to the earth. She was water, and he was dying of thirst. She was air, and he’d nearly suffocated these past 26 years.

Ace’s hands came up to grip the back of his neck, her fingers snaking through his messy hair. They stopped, smiling against one another’s mouths, then kissed again.

Two months’ worth of tension poured into their kiss, along with eons and ages of love. Their bodies pushed against one another as if their souls could touch, desperate to connect like they had in so many lives before.

They could scarcely tear their lips from one another’s to remove their clothes, their foreheads pressed together as they struggled to remove vests, shirts, shoes. Their breath, an extension of their souls, mingled in a heady fusion as they removed the barriers between them and tossed them aside. Zander felt as if he would die in the few moments it took to remove his trousers, wherein he was forced to pull his face away and breathe air that wasn’t shared with Ace.

Then they stood, naked body and soul, and drank in the sight of one another before crashing into each other again, their bodies aching to touch. Their hands roved, caressed, explored, their hips grinding against one another.

Ace put her hands atop Zander’s shoulders and pushed, easing him to the ground. She moved to his lap, straddling his legs as he fell against the damp cave wall. He felt nothing—not the cold, not the jagged stone that pressed into his back—only Ace.

Only the round curves of her bottom as it moved against his thighs. The feel of her tongue in his mouth. The peaks of her breasts against his chest, her nipples rubbing against him. The cushion of hair between her legs. He brought his hand there, gently rubbing the pearl hidden beneath as she rocked her hips, their mouths still devouring one another. She rocked against his hand, her breathing erratic, until she shook with release. He swallowed her moans like they were ambrosia.

And then he was inside her, and nothing else had ever felt more like home, and the stillness of the cave was drowned in the cries of their pleasure.

Hours later, the two lay intertwined with one another on the floor of the cave. Ace’s head was resting against Zander’s shoulder, and he was tired in the most wonderful way possible. After making love, they bathed in the icy water of the cave, and as their hands explored one another in the faint blue pool, a new wave of heat rose up around them.

Zander soon had her on the cave floor, his shirt balled beneath the back of her head like a pillow so he could plant his head between her legs. It was only after they’d made love and rinsed the clay from their skin a second time that their bodies were sated, and they lay on the cold floor atop their clothes, listening to the stillness with each other.

Ace sighed. Zander hummed questioningly at her in response, too comfortable to open his mouth.

“I don’t want to go back,” she said.

Zander brought his hand up to her shoulder and traced lazy lines on her skin. There was an admission in her words, and Zander knew what it was.

“I know things will have to remain professional around the crew,” he said. “The last thing I want to do is make things awkward for you.”